Shut up about Barclay Perkins

Monday, 16 October 2017

I’m not quite done with Bavarian wheat beers. Because there are still a couple of types I haven’t covered yet. And if nothing else, I’m a completist.

The first is a fairly recent development, Leicht Hefeweizen. Over the last decade or two lower-gravity versions of a few styles have appeared. And Weizen is no exception.

For the most, these are beers that would have been legal in the days when there was hole between 9º and 11º Plato. All but one of the beers fits into the old Schankbier category, which had a maximum OG of 8º Plato. At one time, pretty much all the Schankbier brewed was in the form of Berliner Weisse.

The one exception is the Göller beer, which at 9.5º is smack in the middle of the old forbidden zone.

Interestingly, the average rate of attenuation is a bit less than for the full-strength versions. I would have guessed the opposite.

Bavarian Leicht Hefeweizen in 2014

Brewer

Town

Beer

OG Plato

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

Göller

Zeil am Main

Leichte Weisse

9.5

1037.8

1009.3

3.70

75.39%

Püls-bräu

Stadtsteinach

Weismainer Leichte
Weisse

7.8

1030.8

1008.4

2.90

72.75%

Paulaner

Munich

Hefe-Weißbier Leicht

7.7

1030.4

1005.8

3.20

80.93%

Hacker-Pschorr

Munich

Leichte Weisse

7.7

1030.4

1005.8

3.20

80.93%

Kitzmann-Bräu

Erlangen

leichtes Weißbier

7.7

1030.4

1008

2.90

73.70%

Privatbrauerei
Kesselring

Marktsteft

Steffen Leicht

7.6

1030.0

1007.6

2.90

74.67%

Pyraser
Landbrauerei

Thalmässing

Federleichte Weiße

7.2

1028.4

1006.8

2.80

76.04%

Brauerei
Hermann Sigwart

Weißenburg

Leichte Weiße

6.8

1026.8

1005.2

2.80

80.57%

Average

7.8

1030.6

1007.1

3.05

76.87%

Sources:

The relevant brewery websites

The final type of Weissbier is a much older one. And rather under threat. Once this was the most popular type of Bavarian Weissbier, but fashion has turned against it and the version with yeast rules.

I can’t say that I’ve ever been a big fan. I prefer the ramped up spiciness of Hefeweizen. Kristall Weizen has always struck me as rather bland.

Here are the numbers:

Bavarian Kristall Weizen in 2014

Brewer

Town

Beer

OG Plato

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

Paulaner

Munich

Weißbier
Kristallklar

11.8

1047.4

1007.5

5.20

84.17%

Weihenstephan

Freising

Kristall Weisbier

12.7

1051.2

1009.7

5.40

81.04%

Privatbrauerei
Kesselring

Marktsteft

Kristall Weizen

12

1048.2

1007.6

5.30

84.24%

Distelhäuser

Tauberbischofsheim

Kristall Weizen

12.5

1050.3

1008.9

5.40

82.31%

Kulmbacher

Kulmbach

Kristall Weisbier

12.7

1051.2

1009.7

5.40

81.04%

Average

12.3

1049.6

1008.7

5.34

82.56%

Sources:

The relevant brewery websites

It’s a small sample, but there does appear to be a significant difference with the yeast versions: the rate of attenuation. It’s three points higher. My guess would be it’s because it’s conditioned at the brewery for longer.

Sunday, 15 October 2017

Someone asked after my recent series of posts on Bavarian Weizen: why no Erdinger?

I did contemplate being a smartarse and saying; "Because their beers are shit." But that isn't the real reason. Which is that I just hadn't looked up their website. I thought I'd put that right. And luckily they give both the OG and ABV on their website.

They brew quite a range of wheat beers, eight in all. Excluding the alcohol-free versions.

Most have a very high degree of attenuation, which must make them quite light in the mouth. The Urweiss is an amber-coloured version, in case you're wondering. There are a lot of beers around 12º Plato, which I guess is to be expected. German brewers still mostly stick to the old gravity bands. Habit, I guess.

There was one intersting point I noticed. The website also lists the ingredients. For the Dunkles and Pikantus in includes Röstmalzbier - roasted malt beer. Which I'm guessing is either Sinamar or something similar. Effectively it's a type of malt-based caramel. So no actula dark malts in the grist. I told you lots of this goes on in Germany.

Oh, and do you see what it says on the top of the label? Brewed according to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot of 1516. Which is a downright fucking lie. The original law sys that beer can only be brewed from barley, hops and water. No mention of wheat.

Saturday, 14 October 2017

I like it when I have a good long run of brewing records from a brewery. Because then you can see how a beer developed over time. Like Tally Ho.

Tally Ho is unusual in being a very early named beer. Very few beers were called anything other than [brewery name] [style of beer]. For example, Bass Pale Ale or Guinness Extra Stout. I’m trying to think of other examples of named beers. Things like Old Tom, I suppose. I think there might have been a few with names like that before 1900.

The first version of Tally Ho I found in Adnams records is a very simple beer. But the brewing record is also a bit light on detail. There’s nothing about boiling or mashing, so that’s just a guess based on later versions. I could be way off. Oh, and there’s no FG, either.

The ingredients aren’t explained in much more detail than the process. Malt, saccharine and hops is as far as the description goes. All in all, there’s a whole lot of guesswork going on. Pale malt is obvious enough for the malt, but what about the sugar? I doubt if it was pure sucrose, though it could have been. In the end I plumped for No. 2 invert.

As for hops, Goldings are a safe bet. It’s on the early side for Fuggles, but they’re also a possibility. They were being grown commercially in the 1870’s.

One thing there is no argument about: the very high percentage of sugar in the grist. A third is about as high as it gets.

Apologies for the vagueness of it all. It will improve as we progress through the years.

Friday, 13 October 2017

It wasn’t just pale Hefeweizen that I caught in my sweep of Bavarian brewery websites. I also found quite a few dark versions.

It’s a sign of the increased popularity of Weissbier that there a many breweries that produce more than one variation. Sometimes a dark version. Which is a bit like black IPA. Because the name Weissbier is connected to the colour and not necessarily anything to do with wheat.

I can’t help wondering how these beers are coloured. It wouldn’t surprise me if some were just the brewery’s standard pale Weissbier with added Sinamar. Or maybe I’m being over cynical.

Though the fact that the averages for these beers and the pale versions are almost identical. Here are the lovely numbers:

Bavarian Dunkel Hefeweizen in 2014

Brewer

Town

Beer

OG Plato

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

Weihenstephan

Freising

Hefeweissbier Dunkel

12.7

1051.16

1010.5

5.30

79.48%

Brauerei
Kanone Löhr

Schnaittach

Weizen (dunkel)

12.8

1051.59

1013.9

4.90

73.15%

Arnsteiner
Brauerei

Seinsheim

Ur-Weisse

12.7

1051.16

1012.7

5.00

75.18%

Kitzmann-Bräu

Erlangen

Dunkles Weißbier

12.6

1050.74

1007.9

5.60

84.53%

Klosterbrauerei
Andechs

Andechs

Weissbier Dunkel

12.5

1050.32

1011.9

5.00

76.35%

Göller

Zeil am Main

Kaiser Heinrich
Urweisse dunkel

12.5

1050.32

1010.4

5.20

79.43%

Distelhäuser

Tauberbischofsheim

Dunkles Hefe-Weizen

12.5

1050.32

1008.9

5.40

82.31%

Brauerei
Hermann Sigwart

Weißenburg

Dunkle Weiße

12.5

1050.32

1012.6

4.90

74.96%

Paulaner

Munich

Hefe-Weißbier Dunkel

12.4

1049.90

1009.2

5.30

81.56%

Hacker-Pschorr

Munich

Dunkle Weisse

12.4

1049.90

1009.2

5.30

81.56%

Brauhaus
Leikeim

Altenkunstadt

Dunkle Weisse

12.3

1049.47

1008.1

5.40

83.63%

Pyraser
Landbrauerei

Thalmässing

Angerwirts Weizen
altfränkisch dunkel

12.3

1049.47

1008.8

5.30

82.21%

Privatbrauerei
Kesselring

Marktsteft

Schlemmer Schwarz

12

1048.21

1007.6

5.30

84.24%

Average

12.5

1050.2

1010.1

5.22

79.89%

Sources:

The relevant brewery websites

And these are the averages for the pale ones:

OG Plato

OG

FG

ABV

App. Atten-uation

12.5

1050.3

1010.1

5.24

79.96%

See what I mean? The averages are scarily similar.

Interestingly, no-one seems to make a Kristall Dunkles Weissbier. I wonder why that is?

Thursday, 12 October 2017

Mühlhausen was an amazing place in the 1980's. A town that seemed almost untouched by the last 300 years.

It had a near-complete city wall and a near-complete old centre. Dolores's sister used to live in an amazing ancient house, with a weird galleried inner courtyard. Amazing, I guess, if you didn't have to live there as it was slowly crumbling into dust.

It also had three breweries, which, given its population of just 50,000, was also pretty amazing. My brother-in-law knew someone who worked in Turmquell and got me inside the brewery. Not exactly the most modern kit they had, but they brewed one outstanding beer, Pilsator. One of the best pale Lagers I've ever drunk. Sadly both it and the three breweries are all long gone.

You’re probably as relieved as I am that this interminable series of Barclay Perkins Mild recipes is now at an end. Unless I decide to do the 1947 one.

You might be surprised to see that, despite the war having been over for 12 months (this beer was brewed in August 1946), the OG has fallen by 4 points to just 1027.5º. Its gravity has dropped below what that of A, their cheap 4d a pint Mild, had been in 1935.

This OG is about as low as any UK beer would be. There was no point dropping the gravity below 1027º as the minimum duty on beer was charged at that rate. Though I should point out that the effective gravity of this beer was higher as the primings added at racking time were enough to increase it by 3º, making it really 1031.5º. But that’s still pretty damn watery.

As in WW I, the nadir came a year or two after the end of hostilities. The late 1940’s were difficult years in Britain. The war had come at a terrible financial cost. The pound wasn’t a hard currency and imports had to be paid for in dollars, which were in short supply. Which is why there hadn’t been a return to using flaked maize, which needed to be imported.

They must have been short of No. 3 invert, because the quantity has been changed from 9 to 5 quarters and 4 quarters of No. 1 have been added in red. Otherwise the grist is unchanged, consisting of mild malt, SA malt, crystal malt and amber malt. As usual, I’ve substituted more mild malt for the SA malt.

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

I hope you’re enjoying my series on Lager styles. I realise now that II started this series a few years ago. Then got distracted and forgot to finish it.

I’d written the first part about Export, then never gone any further. Sorry about that.

I’ve so many analyses that I’ve split them up by region. I’m starting with some names that you may find familiar. Several of these names are still around though, as in the case of Löwenbräu, not necessarily the brewery.

The gravity of Export has been whittled down over the years, which is the main reason that the distinction between Export and Lagerbier has been eroded. Most modern examples don’t even reach 13º Plato. As we’ll be seeing later. Assuming I can be arsed to continue this series that long.

The numbers are much as I would expect, especially the low degree of attenuation. That’s so typical of 19th-century Lagers. It leaves the average ABV under 5%. A level of alcohol achieved in modern Lagers with an OG of no more than 12º Plato.

You’ll note that there’s a fair degree of variation in gravity, from just 12.31º Plato to 15.23º Plato. As a drinker, there was no real way of knowing how strong the beer in your glass was. Other than to guess based on its mouthfeel and effect.

In the UK at least, Lager had a reputation for not being very intoxicating. Which presumably was a result of the low degree of attenuation. That and lower gravities to start with. The average gravities of these Exports, which were considered strongish Lagers, is about the same as London X Ale of the period. Which wasn’t considered particularly strong at all.

Monday, 9 October 2017

It’s not just Bavarian Weissbier I’ve analyses for. I’ve also some for North German variations.

They’re quite an interesting bunch. Especially as all but one – the Lichtenhainer – are examples of extinct beer styles.

The first six in the table below are all from the Hannover region, Cell and Ahlten being villages just outside the city. Two of the beers – the ones from Glitz and Schlombs – look quite similar to Berliner Weisse. They’re around 3% ABV and pretty sour. Are these in fact examples of Broyhan?

What the other four Hannover beers share is a terrible degree of attenuation and minimal amounts of alcohol. And two of those are specifically called Broyhan. In contrast to the stronger beers, none of these is particularly sour, a little tart at the most.

I assume that the Hamburg beers were from a specialist Weissbier brewery. At least that’s what the name implies. The first two look very much along the lines of Berliner Weisse again: around 3% ABV and with a high level of acidity.

The Lichtenhainer stands out due to its high degree of attenuation and is easily the strongest of the set. It shows a mild degree of acidity, which is how the style is usually described. Sadly, this is the only analysis of Lichtenhainer I’ve ever found.

Sunday, 8 October 2017

It's that time of year again - Bokbier season! When I can gorge myself on cheap Amstel Bock.

There are two reasons I drink Amstel Bock. It's cheap. (Very good value at 60 cents for 30 cl. As it's a 7% ABV beer.) And I don't want them to stop making it, as it's a great example of the style. Tasty, I almost forgot that. Drinkable, that too. Make that four reasons, in no particular order. Apart from cheap.

Dolores returned from the supermarket the other day with a veritable bounty of Boks. More than I can be arsed to count at the moment. Time for me to return to my sketches.

Brouwerij 't Ij Ijbok 6.5% ABV
That doesn't smell wonderful. Coriander and cabbage. I've come across that in Ij beers before. Caramel and coffee are sparring in the mouth with the coriander/cabbage thing going on, finishing wioth a smoky bitterness. Something not right here.

"Do you want to try my beer, Lexxie?"

"Nah, I'm OK."

He changes his mind.

"OK, let me try it." Sips. "It's OK. Easy to drink I guess."

Looks over my shoulder.

"What's that with the double X in my name. You're not spelling it right. There's only one x. And the letters aren't in the right order."

"No, that's the way I spell it Lexxxxxie."

"Stop it, dad. You're really annoying, you know."

Pause.

"Write 'Bush did it', dad."

"Did what?"

"The Vegas attacks."

"Lexxie. I can't write that. Just think of all the crazies it might attract."